Day 6: Disneyland and California Adventures | Total Drive Time: 0 hours | Total Distance: Lots of walked miles
Yes, it was a great day! Our feet are sore from a ton of walking, our bodies are drained from a lot of sun, and our children are passed out in bed without a single peep for the first time on our vacation because….today was a great day!
I’ll recap our day by providing our schedule and what we did. No doubt it was a busy but a very fun day.
6am: Wake up; dressed and out of the hotel by 6:40am.
7am: Hotel guests get into California Adventures 1 hour earlier than the general public. We hung out in Cars Land and rode a couple rides. Autumn loved Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree so much we rode it 3 times. We’ll visit Cars Land again tomorrow, and probably Wednesday since the kids are so familiar with the Cars characters.
8:30am: Breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel. The is buffet style where anything from pancakes, bacon to peanut butter & jelly pizza or smoked salmon are available. It’s a very wide variety of food options. Some of the Disney Characters are available to walk around and take pictures with, unless you’re Autumn. She decided to have no part in having the Disney Characters stop by our table and cried anytime one came nearby. We did get a few photos.
10am: Entered Disneyland for the first time on this trip. We rode Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Jungle Cruise, and Star Tours. Ethan loved Star Tours…a lot. The kids took in all the sites and sounds. I have to say I love the sounds of Disneyland Park. There is always music playing and that is awesome.
1pm: Swimming and some lunch at the Disneyland Hotel. The kids needed a break from the Disneyland atmosphere and swimming offered the perfect opportunity. The hotel has a set of water slides that the kids thoroughly enjoyed. Ethan did all of them while Autumn tried the small one.
3pm: Headed up to our room for down time. The kids relaxed and I crashed out.
4:30pm: Back to Disneyland. We took the Monorail from downtown Disney to Tomorrowland. We rode It’s A Small World, Dumbo Ride, Toad’s Wild Ride, Peter Pan, Snow White, and the Carousel. If you asked Ethan what his favorite ride was today, he’ll say “All of them!” Though he got a bit scared on Pirates of the Caribbean and Toad’s Wild Ride, he still talks about the rides.
7pm: Leave Disneyland and get dinner. We opted to pick up a few slices of pizza from a restaurent in Downtown Disney and take them to our room to eat.
9:30pm: Disneyland Fireworks. We decided to keep the kids up late tonight since after baths and getting ready for bed it was almost 9pm and only 30 minutes until the fireworks show started. We put Ethan in the stroller and Autumn in Laura’s ergo carrier and headed to Main Street U.S.A. By time we reached Main Street Autumn was sleeping. Ethan was wide awake and unsure what to expect since loud noises generally make him nervous. If I could’ve captured his expressions during the fireworks show, they would have showed a 4 year old boy who was in awe, excited, and happy with such a spectacular show. He loved it! Halfway back to our hotel room he fell alseep.
10pm: Transfer both kids to their beds where they will sleep soundly all night with sweet dreams.
So cool, Brett.